Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the foremost African-American celebrities of the 1940s and early 1950s, an exhilarating performer with an impressive fingerpicking guitar style. She sang gospel music for most of her career, but crossed over into jazz, blues, and rhythm & blues. Her 1945 recording of ‘Strange Things Happening Every Day’ has even been called an early example of rock ‘n’ roll. She toured or recorded with Louis Jordan, Count Basie, Lucky Millinder, and Sammy Price among others, and collaborated with Marie Knight to form one of the top gospel acts of the early post-World War II era. Some members of the religious community met her forays into secular music with outrage. Tharpe was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, on March 20, 1915, and died in Philadelphia on October 9, 1973. Among those who have cited her as an influence are Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Etta James, Little Richard, and Isaac Hayes. Her biography, Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, by Gayle Wald, was published by Beacon Press.
